Venture capital fund Kalaari Capital is planning to raise $300 million (Rs 1,868 crore) in a new technology-focused fund.
An email sent to Kalaari Capital's spokesperson did not elicit a response.
Earlier, The Economic Times had said citing sources that Kalaari Capital is raising $200-250 million in its new fund. The plan for the new fund was confirmed by a spokesperson of the VC firm who had not commented on the target size.
Earlier this year, Ratan Tata was roped in as an advisor of the venture capital firm for its portfolio companies. Kalaari Capital has been active in India since 2006 and has made around 55 investments so far across startups. The firm has $350 million under management.
In 2012, IndoUS Venture Partners was re-branded as Kalaari Capital Advisors. Kalaari Capital Partners II, LLC raised $150 million for the Indian market that year.
Kalaari Capital has invested across 27 companies in e-commerce, technology and consumer space, including online marketplace Snapdeal, lingerie e-retailer Zivame, payment solutions provider Instamojo, education services provider SuperProfs.com, e-learning portal Simplilearn and online furniture store Urban Ladder, among others.
A bunch of tech-focused VC funds has raised or is on the road to raise money. Last year, Sequoia Capital raised $530 million through an India-focused fund. Mayfield India II raised $108 million for its second fund. In the same year, Lighthouse raised $125 million for its India 2020 Fund II. Recently, SAIF Partners raised its VC fund at $350 million and Accel Partners raised $305 million for its fourth fund.
Apart from these, Blume Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners and others are on the road to raise new funds.
Two of the three co-founders of Seedfund- Praveen Gandhi and Bharati Jacob are splitting out to raise a $60 million consumer internet-focused fund.
Then there are others who are also getting into the early-stage investment bandwagon. Cricekter Yuvraj Singh has just floated a $10 million seed-stage fund YouWeCan to back internet startups. He is also looking to raise another $50 million from friends and others to add to the investible corpus.
IT industry veterans T V Mohandas Pai, V Balakrishnan, former Wipro joint CEO Girish Paranjpe and former iFlex Solutions CEO Deepak Ghaisas among others raised their maiden fund under Exfinity Venture Partners.
Large technology firms have made independent allocations for technology startups in India. Infosys has allocated $500 million and Wipro has set apart $100 million for startup investments. These funds are not exclusively focused on Indian ventures, though.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)